Charter School Advocates Sue New York State For More Money

A lawsuit filed by a group of charter-school
supporters alleges that a chronic funding gap between charter schools
and traditional public schools violates the state constitution and
disproportionately hurts minority students.

The
suit, filed late Monday in state Supreme Court on behalf of five
families in Buffalo and Rochester, says charter students in Buffalo
received around $9,800 less than their district-school counterparts in
the 2011-12 school year, which they said was the largest disparity in
the state. In Rochester, charter students received around $6,600 less,
according to the suit.

Charter schools
outside of New York City don't receive funding for facilities, which
forces them to cut back on critical amenities like libraries and science
labs, the lawsuit says.

"For years charter schools have had to
struggle to get by," said
Kyle Rosenkrans,
interim president of the Northeast Charter Schools Network, a
nonprofit group that represents charter schools in New York and
Connecticut and that joined the suit. "That's why we see the parents
from Buffalo and Rochester really rising up to say we've had enough. The
state needs to find a solution."

The
suit asks the court to declare that New York's approach to
charter-school funding violates the state constitution and force the
defendants to remedy the situation. Defendants include the state of New
York, Gov.
Andrew Cuomo,
the state legislature, and the state education department.

I would imagine Governor Cuomo will be happy to do for charters in the rest of the state what he did for charters here in NYC - which means steal money from public schools and divert it to private schools:

"This lawsuit is simply another deceptive attempt for charter schools to divert even more money away from public schools," said
Zakiyah Ansari,
Advocacy Director for the Alliance for Quality Education, an advocacy group for public schools.